In October 2010, Yoweri Museveni, the President of Uganda recorded a rap song titled: “Do You Want Another Rap?” as part of his re-election campaign to capture the imagination of young voters. The song was a hit and Museveni re-elected as President. However when Museveni applied for copyright registration of the song, members of the Ankole community filed an objection stating that the song was derived from Ankole folklore which is in the public domain and thus the President cannot assert an exclusive right of ownership over Ankole poems through his rap song. The Registrar of Copyright in Uganda eventually allowed Museveni’s copyright application for registration.

Kenya Copyright Act and Regulations define “related rights” as “rights neighbouring on copyright”. There are three types of related rights holders namely, performers under sections 30 and 30A, producers of sound recordings under section 28 and 30A and broadcasters under section 29. A “performer” in the Act is defined as “an actor, singer, declaimer, musician or other person who performs a literary or musical work and includes the conductor of the performance of any such work”. The performer potentially enjoys two distinct sets of rights under copyright namely the related rights in the sound recording and the related rights in the audiovisual work.

African Innovation Foundation (AIF) is a not-for-profit organization based in Zurich whose objectives cover a wide range of activities aimed at unlocking innovative potential in Africa, and which include, the Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) awards. The fifth edition of the IPA awards were recently held in Botswana with total cash Awards of US$150 000 up for grabs. AIF partnered with the Government of Botswana represented by the Ministry of Infrastructure, Science and Technology and the Botswana Innovation Hub to host IPA 2016 under its theme Made in Africa. H.E. President Lieutenant General Seretse Khama Ian Khama, the President of Botswana presided at the prestigious awards ceremony, held at the Gaborone International Conference Centre in the capital’s metropolis.

Tunisia is the most recent African nation to deposit its instrument of ratification to the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled (MVT) at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The Treaty enters into force for Tunisia on December 7, 2016. The Marrakesh Treaty was adopted on June 27, 2013 in Marrakesh and it forms part of the body of international copyright treaties administered by WIPO. It has a clear humanitarian and social development dimension and its main goal is to create a set of mandatory limitations and exceptions for the benefit of the blind, visually impaired, and otherwise print disabled (VIPs).

On June 23, WIPO Director General Francis Gurry received Djibouti’s instrument of accession to the WIPO-administered Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). The accession document was hand-delivered by Djibouti’s Minister Delegate to the Ministry of Economy and Finance in charge of Trade, SMEs, Handicrafts and Tourism Hassan Houmed Ibrahim. Djibouti’s accession brings the number of PCT members to 150. The PCT helps applicants in seeking patent protection internationally for their inventions, providing a cost effective system. The PCT also helps its members with their patent granting decisions, while providing public access to a wealth of technical information relating to those inventions. The PCT enters into force in Djibouti on September 23, 2016.

Recently we launched our Trade Marks (TM) Database – a groundbreaking web-based portal for conducting free searches of recent trade mark applications advertised by Kenya Industrial Property Institute (KIPI). The TM Database is now available here. It currently has over 27,130 fully searchable trademarks and this number is growing by the day as more applications are added to our platform.